The House and Senate are both in session this week. The House will consider 11 bills under suspension of the rules, including the Securing American Nonprofit Organizations Against Terrorism Act of 2019 (H.R. 2476), which authorizes $75 million annually for FYs 2020-2024 for the Department of Homeland Security's new Nonprofit Security Grant Program to protect places of worship and other nonprofits with grants that can be used for physical and cyber security enhancement, inspection and screening systems, or security training fees; and the Strengthening Local Transportation Security Capabilities Act of 2019 (H.R. 2539), which puts more federal law enforcement officers and resources near high-risk surface transportation assets and provides new terrorism-focused training and improved cooperation between federal, state and local law enforcement partners.

 

For the remainder of the week, the House will begin floor consideration of a $990 billion, five-bill FY 2020 "minibus" appropriations package (H.R. 2740), which includes the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education; Legislative Branch; Defense; State-Foreign Operations; and Energy-Water Development Appropriations bills. On Monday, the House Rules Committee will consider more than 500 amendments submitted by House members to the minibus package. The House will also vote on a resolution (H. Res. 430) holding Attorney General William Barr and former White House Counsel Don McGahn in contempt of Congress and authorizing House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) to go to court to seek civil enforcement of the subpoena for Attorney General Barr to turn over Special Counsel Robert Mueller's unredacted Russia report and underlying evidence as well as for McGahn to provide documents and public testimony. The resolution also gives any committee chair the rare power to go to federal court to seek civil enforcement of subpoenas, both current and future orders, so long as they are granted approval by the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group.

 

The Senate will vote on 11 judicial and executive nominations, including: Ryan Holte to be a Judge of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims; Rossie Alston, Jr. to be U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia; Richard Hertling to be a Judge of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims; Sarah Morrison to be U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Ohio; Pamela Barker to be U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Ohio; Corey Maze to be U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Alabama; Rodney Smith to be U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Florida; Thomas Barber to be U.S. District Judge for the Middle District of Florida; Jean Paul Boulee to be U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Georgia; David Stilwell to be Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs; and Edward Crawford to be U.S. Ambassador to Ireland.

 

On Tuesday, the full House Appropriations Committee will markup the FY 2020 Homeland Security and Financial Services-General Government Appropriations bills, the last two of the 12 annual appropriations bills that the Committee has marked up over the past month. Another important markup of note is Tuesday and Wednesday's House Financial Services Committee markup of the National Flood Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2019, which reauthorizes the NFIP and its flood mapping program for five years and also: addresses premium affordability; makes several improvements to floodplain management and mitigation; authorizes funding for flood mapping; requires up- to-date technology and more advanced and granular maps; improves the process for policyholders and communities to appeal FEMA's mapping decisions; and creates new flood map zones for levee -impacted and agricultural areas.